That was the word at the Whistler Sliding Centre Monday as Mellisa Hollingsworth, Jeff Pain and the rest of a very strong Canadian team took their first two training runs in preparation for the start Thursday of the 2010 Olympic skeleton competition.

When they put the Olympic gold medal around the freestyle skier's neck Sunday night, it took a weight of the rest of the Canadian team's back.

"Everyone was super pumped," said Calgary's Pain. "It's so fantastic not only for Canada to get a gold medal finally, but it got the ball rolling. It takes a lot of pressure off of everyone else. 'When's that gold going to come? When's that gold going to come?' It's like, whew, thanks Alexandre for getting that out of the way."

Hollingsworth, from Eckville, Alta., leads the World Cup circuit points race and is a gold medal favourite here. She also admitted that the pressure would have mounted had Bilodeau not come through.

"Ahh, Alexandre, he's an amazing hero for Canada," said Hollingsworth, who won bronze in 2006 in Turin. "He's very inspiring. Everything he said is so key. I hope every one of our athletes heard his post-race interviews because he said it all. We're ready. We said four years ago that we're not just participating, we're here to be on the podium."

And questions about gold medals also happen to be much more fun to talk about than the other lines of conversation that have emerged from this venue.

Last week Pain started 'sled gate' when he accused the Germans of using illegal magnetic components in the their steel runners. The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton quickly investigated and found no problem.

On Friday Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died in a training run crash. The International Luge Federation and VANOC also reacted quickly, shortening the length of the track to make it shorter and safer, a decision that sparked lively debate.

That was still a topic of conversation Monday.

This was the first day the skeleton athletes have been able to run the track since the accident at corner 16. All the athletes have seen it. They all know the track has been altered with corner 16 being re-shaped to make it safer.

Hollingsworth has crashed a number of times at corner 16, the corner where Kumaritashvili lost control. The wall has been built higher to make it safer and corner re-shaped.

"First off, we mourned the loss of a slider in our community," said Hollingsworth, when asked about the tragedy. "At least he was here and he achieved his dream of getting to an Olympic Games.

"As far as my game plan, it didn't instill any fear in me. It was a freak accident. As far as I'm concerned, I'm choosing not to look at the (Kumaritashvili's) run.

"Yes, I've had the most challenges on this track out of pretty well any slider in the world but I contribute my success this year to that. You have to have challenges and learn how to handle them to be successful.

"This is a great track. I want to be challenged. You can only slide on tracks like Igls, Austria so long. You want your limits to be pushed."

"I was upset to learn about the accident," said Jon Montgomery of Russell, Man. "No. 16 is fine, especially for our sport. The dynamics of their sport is completely different than ours. They're a lot more elevated, they can tip off their sleds, they're going down feet first as opposed to head first. They're on blades, we're on round bars. It's a completely different monster and for us corner 16 is nothing."

Switzerland's defending Olympic champion Maya Pedersen said the track was still difficult.

"It's really hard but I'll try to have perfect runs and we'll see," she said.

"If they wouldn't have changed it (corner 16) I would have crashed today twice. It's good that they changed it."

She was upset that some people are trying to blame the accident on the pilot who made it.

"This is very sad," she said. "For me it's sad to hear that they're blaming the accident on the athlete. I'm a good athlete and I made the same mistake twice now."

"I'm not thinking about it," said Germany's Anja Huber. "The whole track is difficult. But the luge is completely different than skeleton."

"They (FIL) did exactly what I thought they would do and that's over-react," said American Zach Lund. "It was a horrible thing, tragic. My heart goes out to the slider's family. But sometimes people forget we're hurling ourselves down a sheet of ice and things can happen. It was hard on everyone in a close knit community and hopefully it won't get in people's minds and affect their sliding."

As for Pain's comment, at least that's no longer an issue.

"They checked the German sleds, they seemed to legal and I have no further comment on that," said Pain, who said he got a lot of reaction from his comments.

"There was a lot of finally somebody spoke up and said something. I got lots of feedback."

A Radio-Canada reporter has been arrested for alleged criminal harassment while pursuing the subject of a story. According to Radio-Canada, reporter Antoine Trépanier was arrested Tuesday night by Gatineau police. He was released on a promise to appear in court. Trépanier was called by Gatineau police Tuesday evening and an officer requested that he come […]

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